The Lankan team defeats the Bangladeshi side to keep their World Cup campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to complete a thrilling victory over Bangladesh and preserve their faint hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the last six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling victory for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – moves them tied on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding performance.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu could not capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back to the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the final two overs, with just 12 more runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and allowed just three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the death.

In the end, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a few of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the required total was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the very beginning, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been significantly lower.

It took them three tries to end the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a challenging chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was missed again on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with batting partners being dismissed beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this competition and have the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are typically heading in the correct path – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a prominent problem which demands attention.